Sunday Snapshot~ on stage...finally

 

i can barely stand it. after years of dressing up to play super heroes and participating in civil war re enactments he's finally found the stage. we've always known he'd be pretty comfortable up there.. in whatever costume and in whatever accent. we just didn't know how comfortable. the boy's a natural. and yes, i know i'm mom; and i'm biased, but really, i'm not kiddin'! 

 

this was yesterday morning just an hour before his second performance. he had his lines memorized a month before opening night, so there were like no worries.  

catching a snack before dad took him down to the school.

 it couldn't have been a better play for his first... a name like Smilin' Slade Claggett, cowboys, guns and pretty ladies! right up his alley:)

here are a few snippets if you have a few minutes...

 

"get out there and rob that wagon train!"

shoot out...

curtain call...

 the First Lady brought a friend the second day.

posing with his cast mates

and his villainess

the cast really did a phenomenal job from the littlest to the biggest!

he's definitely been bitten by the acting bug and is chompin' at the bit to do another play. unfortunately, with baseball season and our summer vacation we couldn't make the next production.

but lucky for him Tom Sawyer is slated for this fall so i have a feeling he'll be back up on that stage again real soon:)

 

 some press release photos from the director

Favorite Photo Friday~ the First Lady & her dad

so these pics are from a few months back, but you know me, I can't not post them to the blog. she's going to want to remember these moments with her dad someday.

 he's pretty willing to jump in and participate when her creativity strikes....

...even if it involves a facial:)

 

Flashback!~ bread 2004

this picture made me chuckle when i saw it. some observations...

#1~ wondering where our oldest got that jacket,  i don't even remember buying it.
#2~ the First Lady is sure eye ballin' that bread.
#3~ i love that our second is holding on to Darth Vadar. i sure miss the Star Wars stage they went through!
#4~ i can't wait to show this to our second to prove he did in fact eat wheat bread at one time and liked it! at least i think he liked it, judging by that face i'm not so sure!

Sunday Snapshot~ the doctor is in

from the time we brought the Lil' Lady home she's been fascinated with doctors, doctors and their tools. she's been known to reach for what's in the doctors hand and try to use it on them or herself. At home she has her own doctors kit but she hardly touches it.

she knows.

she knows that Fisher Price doesn't quite cut it. she wants the real stuff. which is probably why I found the doctors reflex hammer in her bag when I got home. yep, she just stuffed it in there along with her Max and Ruby books and snack cup. a part of me wishes I lived closer so I could return it and a part of me wishes I could just somehow see it go down on the security camera, if there was one in the room.  

anyhow, we were at the U of M to see a Neurologist. it's been suggested many times by her peds that we have some tests run to see if her low muscle tone/hypotonia is anything more than what it is, if that makes any sense. so we had the tests and we're just waiting on the final results. while we were there however, the doctors observed how interested she was in there "stuff" and a few even allowed her to play with some of their tools. what they should have done I guess was place them under lock and key! anyhow, one of the nurses brought her a bag of special things that she could keep like what she's wearing in the picture. when they stepped out of the room I took this video.....

 so funny!!

 

Flashback! ~ black & white April 2004

 the brothers on a warm spring day back east.  

 

 only 4 & 5 years old, and just so full of themselves

this was my first attempt to take my own pictures and actually develop them on my own; chemicals, paper, darkroom, negatives and all. it was for a class i was taking, hence the black and white. i don't remember why we didn't do color.

ah.... good times, good times:)

Sunday Snapshot~ turning nine with Tut

 

 the First Lady turned nine and decided to celebrate like a true Pharaoh! she invited her whole class and asked them to bring a donation she could deliver to Home For Life Animal Sanctuary instead of a birthday gift.

  much of the décor i've collected or made over my many art teaching years so it came in quite handy!

 the biggest challenge was how to make a pyramid cake. unfortunately there were not many success stories over the internet of "how to make a pyramid cake" so we opted for the Egyptian step pyramid.

 after all, the earliest Egyptian pyramids were step pyramids so we figured we were in the clear! in fact the famed Egyptian architect Imhotep designed and built a step pyramid for the Pharaoh Djoser which is still standing today! really, we just wanted the easier route, can ya tell?

 not too bad....although i'm sure there's a Pharaoh somewhere that would cringe at the sight of this tomb.

 

  quite a guy, huh? looks pretty good for being over 3500 years old I think

 the First Lady and I started making these chocolate pops a week prior to make sure we had enough. although it would've been less time consuming if we would have bought more than one chocolate mold. trying to be cheap but took us forever!

 finally a use for dads old white t-shirts! we used garden wire and strips of cotton tees to wrap poseable mummies for favors. some were a bit disproportionate but wouldn't you be after laying in a tomb for thousands of years?

 thanks Uncle Scott for Sunoco's feathers...they went perfect with the gold and lapis décor and each kid got to take one home to remind them of the Egyptian feather of truth.

 i couldn't help it, i knew it was a birthday party but i couldn't resist teaching them a little bit about Tutankhamun. we did a slide show on the tv and they learned all about Howard Carters discovery of Tut's tomb. They had fun taking guesses on how Tut met his demise. they loved it! 

 easy peasy popcorn bar with toppings for snacks.

 there was an Egyptian dance party

 lots of mingling......

and eating of course.

 after cake and ice cream we watched some of the tamer parts of The Mummy

 and then took lots of photos!

 dad gets the prize for being the most creative with the cardboard!

 and in the end the First Lady was able to collect quite a bit for the special needs dogs and cats at Home for Life. Some families even brought old blankets the sanctuary needed for their older dogs.

she can't wait to plan her visit.

 happy ninth birthday sweet daughter. we love your spunk, your creativity, your big heart and everything else about you except the fact that you are just growing way too fast. we love you:)